Character Analysis
Aunt Alicia is like Big Edie meets Henry Higgins. She's the most stunning shut-in you've ever seen, polishing her jewelry collection and telling her great niece Gigi about the shahs and kings of long-ago romances as she teaches her how to become the most sought-after mistress in Paris. She clearly worked the courtesan life to her advantage while she was young, and she's living large. Or at least she manages to make it look that way.
MADAME ALVAREZ: Yes, Alicia is always the same. Living in the past must agree with her. When I think…in was in 1859…she went off with her first sultan. Then came her Duke of Milan, her King of Spain, her khedive, her maharajah.
Alicia's had her day in the sun, and, like her sister Madame Alvarez, her hope in the future lays exclusively upon Gigi's romantic and social success. She doesn't feel her sister has adequately taught Gigi the best parts of being a courtesan: trips to Italy, making love in beautiful gardens on moonlit nights, dancing in the arms of a man who adores you, etc. As soon as she gets an inkling that Gaston's starting to show an interest in Gigi, she's all over it, speeding up Gigi's training and making sure that Gaston will make the best possible financial offer.
Mamita assures her sister that Gigi isn't at all like Alicia—"She has no material ambitions." Ouch, sister. Once Gaston signals his intentions, Alicia makes sure that the business arrangement is favorable to Gigi and that the best attorneys will be looking at it. She knows very well how all this works.